The Seaforth News, 1947-08-07, Page 6Queen For A Year—Queen for a year, 18 -year-old Margaret
Marshall, shown here, won title of Miss Toronto of 1947 at
the annual Toronto Police A.A.A. games. '
Meeting a Crisis
"What do you think of the latest
'sews of the foreign situation, Sena-
torl"
"Don't bother sue, 1 gotta get on
the radio and talk. fit a crisis like
this there is no time to think."
He Found Out
Ile was about to propose, but be -
for doing so he wished to snake sure
she would snake a food houscecufe.
So he asked her: "Can you wash
dishes?"
"Yes," site said, "Can you wipe
them?"
FIe didn't propose.
TEDIOUS WORK
Ey CLUVAS WILLIAMS I
15 ASKED TO St'/SOME. MOTHER PROMPTS HIM- reaHER PERSEVER.-
THING To VISITOR. TO ASKS, WHAT 01D HE SEE ES-- WHAT -DID THE
SHOWHOW WELL HE THIS MORNING? SINKS DOG SAY? SQUIRMS
TALXS.STARESSI,.ENTLY CAIN ON CHEs' AND SCRATCHES LEG
RETREATS TOWARDS' DISSAPEARS WIND AS FRONTOOR.
CHAIR,AS' MOTHER CHAIFL. MOTHER GIVES CL05ES, STARTS
WOAX -S HIM To TALK UR AND VISITOR LEAVES PRATTLING UNTIL
pµ, BEDTIME'
l>iifiSYts•7•/8-A4 e 1413 pleatve.t "
OUT OUR WAY
AS MUCH AS
I'VE WATCHED
AN' STUDIED
ANTS, 1 NEVER
SEE ONE. THAT
LOAFS LIKE PEOPLE
DO-- NEVER ONE
-fl-jAT lE SEE�PiS. 7O ' W,1' IT
• EA /W
THEY WOMG
EKTIREL`1 •
BY INSTINCT
THEY HAVEN'T
TH' MENTAL
.'R.CETO
PREPARE •"..
FOR FUTURE
LEIS RE,,,
e.
By J. R. Williams
t LOOK WITH DREAD ,
ON MENTAL FORCES --
THEY GOT RID OF
OX AND HORSES! /\
ALMOST GONE. ARE
PICKS AND SHOVELS-.
NEXT WILL ggE 7H'
SHACKS AND HOVELS
-
I CAN'T STAND A LAND
*9 IRKING .
AS A LWR OF NO MORE
WORKINVL
EALONEy a," w..tlsl:l.El
Foster Mother To Zoo Babies
By FREDRICKA BORCHARD
In the Christian Science Monitor
This is a love story. It is 1:.0
love story of Helen and Fred
Martini, and of Helen's'. love for
Chiquita and Lolita and Rajpur.
and Rusty and Josephine and Ming,
who live in a man-made world in
which there is . little distrust nor'
jealousy, nor fear.
When pretty little Helen,. De-
laney, still in High School, met
and married the local watchmaker's
handsome young apprentice, Fred
Martini she had no 'idea that she
would become a foster mother to
hundreds of furred and feathered
creatures. It is Helen Martini, who
mothers all the Bronx Zoo animals
too young to be on public exhibit.
Sunday Afternoon Jaunts
Fred loved lions, and Helen loved
Fred, so when Fred wanted to go
to the Zoo every Sunday' afternoon:
to look at the lions, Helen went
along and looked at Fred. it was
a very satisfactory arrangement.
Then one day, after they'd been
married for -about five years, Fred
announced that he'd much rather
take care of lions than repair watch-
es, and' Helen said "Why .don't
yon?'e
So, he put in an application, and'
another couple of years went by,
and one morning Fred was order-
ed to;' report for an examination.
He passed it, He wasn't appointed
Keeper of the Lion Manse at once,
because that is a complicated and
highly specialized job requiring an
even longer apprenticeship than
that of watchmaking, but he was
put in charge of various lesser
animals, and both Fred and Helen
have never seen an animal they
couldn't like.
By this time, Helen was spend-
ing part of every day at the Zoo,
but unofficially, just a part of the
'hrong admiring the animals—and
one animal keeper.
Keeper of the Lion House
Cance the day that Fred re-
ceived his official appointment as
Keeper of the Lion House, and
Helen transferred her audience
participation to one particular build-
ing. She'd finish her houseworlc
quickly, and rush off to the lion
house. One day a lioness had a
cub, and like so many wild animals
who bear in captivity, couldn't care
for her baby.
Fred was concerned. He wrapped
the little fellow in a blanket and
brought it home .to Helen, who
fed it with a medicine dropper and
cared for it with love. The young-
ster thrived. Fred knew that the
lion was the property of the Zoo,
but Helen and the lion felt that
it belonged to Hel,en. Compromise
was clearly indicated, and Helen
became, financially and officially,
an employee of the Zoo, with its
nursery her undisputed domain.
The Zoo Nursery
Physically, that nursery is not
unlike an ordinary nursery for
human children. It has pastel walls,
and the air is kept uniformly warm
and moist. The white cages look
like so many white cribs, and
each is equipped with a woolen
blanket tinted pink or baby blue.
There is a big white refrigerator
and a small electric stove, and
Cost of Living
Considered In
Wage Agreement
What is believed to be one of the
first wage agreements in Canada to
include a cost of living clause, was
concluded recently between the
Macdonald Tobacco Company of
Montreal and the Tobacco Workers'
International Union, Local 235,
In recognizing the necessity for
flexible method of compensation to
keep pace with rapid rises and de-
creases in the cost of living index,
the company agreed that the "gross
wages shall be increased by 25 cents
per week 'for each full point rise
over April 6, 1947. Shauld the cost
of living decline, this bonus shall be
decreased by 25 cents per week for
each full point of decline, but not
below the index' figure as at April
6, 1947."
In commenting an the new clause,
union officials who negotiated the
contract, expressed complete satis-
faction and hailed it as a forward
step in labor-management relations.
The new contract, which was con-
cluded in a completely amicable at-
mosphere, also included a general
5 -cent hourly increase; a 5 -day
working week of 45 hours and in-
clusion of ten holidays, six of them
with pay.
there are feeding dishes of pink.,
plastic, light in weightand un-'
breakable.
The young animals- are nealthy
and happy and jealous and cute,
and all of them need, and, get,
affection.
Helen unlocks the nursery door
and pandemonium breaks loose,'
each squeak or bark or whinny
or whine a demand for instant at-
tention. She makes the rounds
whistling, talking, patting. Chiquita
'and Lolita, the ocelots who look
like house cats"and can behave so
differently, stop their tumbling and.
crowd against the bars to have
their ears pulled and their noses
stroked
M"ing,' the Gray Lemur
Ming, the gray lemur from Mad-
agascar who dislikes women and'.
is friendly only with sten, makes
'an exception in Helen's ,case, and
begs for petting with every pretty
wile in his repertoire. Even suspi-
cious Rusty,
uspi-cious-Rusty, the red squirrel, rare
in this part of the world, who was
found half frozen in the park where
someone must' have dropped him,
stops his Mad gyrations and crowds
forward for his ntomcitt of affection,
Only Josephine, the -half-grown
chimpanzee from the Belgian Con-
go, conceals her eagerness, because
Josephine is a sophisticated young
woman of the world, quite ac-
customed to dining in public, and
very proud. If her cage manners are
not all that they might be, surely
a lady may relax a bit in her own
hone. She keeps an eye on Helen,
and when she judges that her turn
is almost due begins to preen.
Hastily site wipes her hands on
her shaggy coat, and when the
door is opened, springs into Helen's
arms, gives her an almost human •
hug, and smuggles against her
shoulder, roiling her eyes amorous-
ly If a party is on the agenda, and
it usually is, Josephine sits sedately
on her little chair, and eats daint-
ily from a spoon, spilling not a
single drop. If she forgets and
uses a paw to chase an elusive
morsel, Helen shakes an admoni-
tory finger or frowns, and Josephine
looks sheepish. Helen never pun-
ishes the animals: they work for
caresses, not through fear.
Even in the lion house, the big
animals know .and 'welcome her.
Some of them were born in cap-
tivity, and Helen bottle-fed them.
Others were acquired in infancy,
and Helen nursed them too. She
kept a female lion cub and a female
tiger cub, born almost sinttil-
taneously, in her hone for a while,
and the two animals played to-
gether and forgot their heriditary
entity. They've never remember -
it, and today, full grown, they
share a cage in the lion house, and
are friends.
Tiger, Lion Take Turns
They do show rivalry for Helen's
affection. The tiger is nice about
it; she just purrs like a kitten when
Helen scratches her )read, then
moves aside and lets the lion have
her turn. The lion is selfish; she
pushes the tiger aside and tries
to nuzzle into Helen's hand.
Rajpur, a tiger, was one of the
nicest babies Helen ever had. He
was born in the zoo in 1044, one
of a litter of three. Their mother
didn't like them and would have
nothing to do with them, so foster -
mother .Martini took c.ver, as she
so often does,
Rajpur, although the largest of
the cubs, was a bons "snuggle
pup," and even at the advanced age
of six months, would coax to be
spoon-fed, He weighs over 600
pounds now, but he still thinks he's
Helen's kitten, and will roll over
for her. She pets hitt from outside
the cage, because be is so powerful
that one of his tiger -hugs would
crush her,
Black Leopard Her Pet
It would be hard for Helen to
choose which animal she cares for
most, but if such a choice had to
be made it would probably be for
Bagheera, the two-year-old black
leaopard that she raised on a bottle.
L•eaopards are notably ferocious
and no'friend to man, but Bagheera,
for all his ferociousness, is friend
to one man and one woman.
Until he was nine months old
he lived in the Martinis' home and
followed them front room to roots.
The first night that he was kept
in the Zoo Helen stayed there too,
"so that he wouldn't be afraid."
He wasn't afraid, and Helen was
very proud of hint. "He's such a
nice animal" she tells you, but
then she says that about all of
them. Taxed, she admits it, "but
only" site says, "because it's true."
Luck
Of the Irish
By"
DEE RA'NDALL
Amt and Terry were young.
They. were, in love. That's why
the sky •looked bluer, the clouds
looked whiter as they lay arnt in
arm on the fresh green grass,
"Just thinlc," said Ann, "Tomor-
row at this time I'll be Mrs. Ter-
rence Patrick O'Halloran."
"Sure and the O'Hallorans' were
always lucky," Terry exclaimed,
mimicking his grandfather,
After the wedding, it was grand
fun going together to the little
white frame house . they had 'se-
lected. Most of their savings had
gone into the modestly, furnished
little place. But it was a home.
Theirs,
Then Mariannewas born. A
sweet pale baby but so delicate.
It took a great deal of skimping
to meet all the expenses.
They lived simply and Ana
knew how to get the most ottt of
everything.
Right in the middle of this eco-
nomical but ecstatic heaven of
theirs a thunderbolt crashed.
Terry lost his job.
But youth is not easily discour-
aged. Terry set out to find another.
job, He was eager to work. He was
sure to find something better:
His enthusiasm wavered how-
ever after several weeks. Too
many, "Sorry, young fellow, but
we're not taking anyone on."
Back home evenings with Ann
though, he was optimistic. "I've
got a good prospect tomorrow,"
he would say, and Ann's answer
invariably would 'be.
"Don't worry Terry. We've still
got a little money in the bank."
Terry thought to himself, how
little it was.
Ann tried to keep her worries
front hint too. She didn't tell him
that there was going to be an-
other baby, until it was impossible
to keep it a secret any longer.
He took her in his arms. "Ann
darling, it's wonderful," But he
'couldn't keep the note of despair
out of his voice as he said, "If it's
a. boy, I hope he's a better success
than I ant."
Their money dwindled down to
nothing. Debts piled high. They
lost their little hone.
They moved to a smelly, dank
tenement. But they weren't dis-
couraged yet. The future surely
held something good .for theta,
But Terry gradually declined;
pulled himself into a shell. Ann
was sweet and kind. Terry mis-
understood, He thought site griev-
ed. There was only the one tiay
out, Suicide. It would look like
an accident.
Gas would be the best way. He
planned the whole thing stealthily,
He knew he was a coward. But he
had to do it. He couldn't bear to
see Ann go on this way any long-
er, The $1,000 insurance would
mean Ann could go to a hospital
when the baby was born. After
that ... he couldn't thinlc of any
more.
His opportunity came quicker
than he had expected, That n ght
Ann said -she was going for a waltt
in the fresh' air.
She kissed hint goodbye, then
went out, telling hint to take care
of Marianne. "I'11 take a nap,' he
said, "sty head aches."
Alone, he went to the kitchen.
Turned on the gas, Then laid down
exhausted. He' dozed .off.
He didn't know how soon after,
but it seemed like an eternity, Ann
was gently' stroking his head. It
was the way he loved to wake up
in the morning,
It all seemed so utlreal, Ann was
excitedly waving a paper in front
of hini. "It's from your fine. Tltey
want you back, Things are picking
up. You'll take old Jim Blake's
place. And there'll be a $10 raise."
Now Terry was _sure he. ,was
dreaming. "The gas . , ." he said.
"Oh, how did you know?", ques-
tioned Ann. "I didn't want to tell
you but we .can havit it turned on
tomorrow, They were really very
polite, waiting until after supper
time,"
"Yes," said Terry, "The O'Hal-
lorans were always lucky."
Hauge Meteor Blasts
Wide Russian. Area
A huge meteor, exploding before it
reached the earth, caused an inten-
sive "rain of iron" in Siberia, blast-
ing hundreds of cedar trees and
pitting the ground with huge craters.
A Soviet expedition which traveled
through hundreds of miles of path-
less juitgle swamps- to study the
meteor which fell early this year in
the remote Sikhote Alin Mountains
northeast of Vladivostok, Siberia,
reported that the meteorite, of unde-
termined size, created an air cushion
in its fall and exploded on hitting it.
Over an arca three quarters of a
utile long by nearly half a mile wide
the earth's surface was pitted with
100 craters, the biggest 100 feet in
width and 25 feet deep.
All round the dense forest dis-
appeared without trace, tiie report
said, adding that of hundreds of
trees nearby, many cedars were split
to fragments. Others had been twist-
ell and thrown over at all angles.
More than 250 small meteorites
were found in the field weighing al-
together over five tons
CROSSTOWIr
By Roland Coe
"Look, GeorgE, the windshield wiper , . NOW it's working.
POP—Water Sports
WHDRE Does pop
THINK HE'S,,- GONE
,N,,..t11/
CANoett4Co BLr IF HE
IWOWS A5 MUCH A6oVT
IT A5 I THINK HE
DOES
t
-HE'S GONE=
sWtMMtwe
By J. MILLAR WATT
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